{"title":"Surveying pet owners' attitudes towards roaming cats in Aotearoa New Zealand.","authors":"L Awawdeh, N Waran, M Pearson, R H Forrest","doi":"10.1080/00480169.2025.2542377","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aim: </strong>To examine the attitudes of pet owners towards roaming cats in New Zealand.</p><p><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>Data was used from a survey of New Zealand residents aged over 18 conducted online between January and March 2019. Along with demographic questions, the respondents were asked, \"Do you think that roaming pet dogs and cats are a problem?\" (yes, no, never thought about it) and if they answered \"yes\", were invited to explain their answers. Thematic analysis was applied to open-text responses focused on cats, while quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of a total of 2,744 participants, 2,292 answered the question regarding roaming pets, with 72% (n = 1,654) viewing roaming pets as problematic. While gender, ethnicity, and rural upbringing showed no significant association with this view, age, education level, place of residence, and pet ownership did. Explanations for their choice of answer were given by 1,479 respondents and highlighted key concerns about free-roaming pets including cats: compromised animal welfare due to risks and neglect; the need for more responsible pet ownership and owner education; calls for stricter regulations and enforcement, including mandatory microchipping and desexing, and regulating cats similarly to dogs; the negative influence of social media; the importance of desexing to control populations and improve behaviour; increased risks to the roaming animals themselves, other animals, humans, and the environment; nuisance behaviours; and differing opinions on whether roaming cats or dogs are more of an issue.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The findings align with previous research indicating a growing but inconsistent public awareness of animal welfare and environmental impacts associated with free-roaming cats. They highlight the need for education and targeted policy to address inconsistencies in attitudes and promote responsible cat ownership.</p><p><strong>Clinical relevance: </strong>Addressing these issues through enhanced public education and policy measures will help to balance animal welfare with community safety and environmental protection.<b>Abbreviations:</b> NZCAT: New Zealand Companion Animal Trust.</p>","PeriodicalId":19322,"journal":{"name":"New Zealand veterinary journal","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"New Zealand veterinary journal","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00480169.2025.2542377","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"VETERINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Aim: To examine the attitudes of pet owners towards roaming cats in New Zealand.
Materials and methods: Data was used from a survey of New Zealand residents aged over 18 conducted online between January and March 2019. Along with demographic questions, the respondents were asked, "Do you think that roaming pet dogs and cats are a problem?" (yes, no, never thought about it) and if they answered "yes", were invited to explain their answers. Thematic analysis was applied to open-text responses focused on cats, while quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics.
Results: Of a total of 2,744 participants, 2,292 answered the question regarding roaming pets, with 72% (n = 1,654) viewing roaming pets as problematic. While gender, ethnicity, and rural upbringing showed no significant association with this view, age, education level, place of residence, and pet ownership did. Explanations for their choice of answer were given by 1,479 respondents and highlighted key concerns about free-roaming pets including cats: compromised animal welfare due to risks and neglect; the need for more responsible pet ownership and owner education; calls for stricter regulations and enforcement, including mandatory microchipping and desexing, and regulating cats similarly to dogs; the negative influence of social media; the importance of desexing to control populations and improve behaviour; increased risks to the roaming animals themselves, other animals, humans, and the environment; nuisance behaviours; and differing opinions on whether roaming cats or dogs are more of an issue.
Conclusion: The findings align with previous research indicating a growing but inconsistent public awareness of animal welfare and environmental impacts associated with free-roaming cats. They highlight the need for education and targeted policy to address inconsistencies in attitudes and promote responsible cat ownership.
Clinical relevance: Addressing these issues through enhanced public education and policy measures will help to balance animal welfare with community safety and environmental protection.Abbreviations: NZCAT: New Zealand Companion Animal Trust.
期刊介绍：
The New Zealand Veterinary Journal (NZVJ) is an international journal publishing high quality peer-reviewed articles covering all aspects of veterinary science, including clinical practice, animal welfare and animal health.
The NZVJ publishes original research findings, clinical communications (including novel case reports and case series), rapid communications, correspondence and review articles, originating from New Zealand and internationally.
Topics should be relevant to, but not limited to, New Zealand veterinary and animal science communities, and include the disciplines of infectious disease, medicine, surgery and the health, management and welfare of production and companion animals, horses and New Zealand wildlife.
All submissions are expected to meet the highest ethical and welfare standards, as detailed in the Journal’s instructions for authors.
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